


Alternate Ending to THAT Episode (Friday April 24th, 2020)

by vanityvause



Category: Emmerdale, vanity - Fandom
Genre: AU, Alternate Ending, F/F, LGBT, Rewrite, nice vanessa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:27:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23831584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanityvause/pseuds/vanityvause
Summary: Charity hesitates when Vanessa asks her to be Johnny's guardian if the worst should happen.This is my interpretation of what I think SHOULD have happened after that moment of silence.Bear with me, I'm rusty (I haven't written for over a year!!!) and it's 3am.This is just for a bit of fun and a gift to other Vanity fans who felt sad by the way our little sunshine was ick.
Relationships: Charity Dingle/Vanessa Woodfield
Comments: 3
Kudos: 110





	Alternate Ending to THAT Episode (Friday April 24th, 2020)

"There's no one else in the whole world that I'd rather have look after him than you," Vanessa spoke softly, reassuring Charity that despite everything she thinks about herself, Vanessa still strongly believes she's a good mother.

The air in Charity's lungs escaped in a puff of self-doubt, "You sure about that?"

"Completely," Vanessa responded without hesitation. "You, Moses and all the kids? You're his family. -- I mean, not legally, admittedly, but... I'd want you to be if the worst happened."

Those words cut through Charity like a hot knife to butter. Her mind tried to stay focused on the words coming out of the other woman's mouth while her soul withered away inside her. Green eyes fixed firmly on her fiancée. Maybe if she concentrated hard enough, she'd realise she'd been mistaken and the love of her life, the woman who'd literally saved her from herself, wasn't actually talking about dying and leaving her behind, lonely, broken and inconsolable for the rest of eternity.

"It's erm, it's something that my solicitor advised me to do when I made my will. To put down in writing who I'd want to look after him." Vanessa continued talking, her gaze cast off into nowhere in particular in the living room they shared. Looking Charity in the eyes would be too painful. But then there was silence where silence shouldn't have been. She wasn't sure what she expected to hear Charity say, but a big fat nothing wasn't it.

As Vanessa turned her head, Charity pushed out the first word she could muster.

"...Right," then took another pause as she shook her head in disbelief, "wow."

Words had never been Charity's forte and then, at that moment while her mind was tormented with thoughts of Vanessa being lowered into the ground in a box in front of her, words had an even lesser chance of being found and used correctly.

Locking eyes with Vanessa, Charity realised she had to say something, and soon, so she uttered, "I mean... yeah, of course!"

"So, the fact that you've just hesitated. That shouldn't scare me?" Vanessa snapped. The look of disappointment on her face along with the venomous bite in her tone left Charity wordless once more.

Vanessa stood up, shaking her head like there was no saving them now. In her mind, Charity had hesitated over the one thing she needed her to be solid on. The future of her son.

"Ness," Charity spoke weakly, staying put on the edge of the sofa as she looked up at her with every apology in her eyes.

"What?" Vanessa grumbled, shooting Charity a glare as she began to pace the room in her agitated state. "I should have listened when everyone and their grandma told me you were useless..." She rambled on angrily.

Charity rolled her eyes, soaking up the insult like a sponge. She often wondered why kind words found it so difficult to get soaked up along with the negative ones, but they did. Somehow whenever a person said something good about her the words were short-lived and seemed to evaporate into thin air. Sitting there on the sofa like a naughty child in the headmaster's office, Charity fiddled with her chipped nail polish. Letting Sarah do her nails in such a sickening shade of pink had probably cursed her, she thought to herself.

"What, has the cat got your tongue?" Vanessa asked cruelly, in a way that Charity didn't recognise from her.

"No," Charity replied calmly with a defeated shrug, "I just figured that if I keep quiet I can't say the wrong thing again like I'm apparently so good at."

"A professional," Vanessa added with a snarky scoff.

"Yeah, thanks for that," Charity sighed heavily.

"Well, what do you expect?" Vanessa asked, her hands landing on her hips as she came to a stop in front of the other blonde.

Charity looked up at her, boldly reaching for one of Vanessa's hands which was yanked away in retaliation. Of what, she wasn't sure.

"Hey," Charity said softly, not playing into Vanessa's clear need for an argument. It was usually Charity's job to be the difficult one, but things had changed a lot lately and the anxiety of facing a life-threatening illness was clearly getting to Vanessa. Dampening her usual bright spirit in a way that broke Charity's heart. "sit down, will you?"

Vanessa was about to say something else but was interrupted quickly by Charity who had heard enough poison from her woman's mouth for one day.

"Sit." She echoed more firmly this time.

Vanessa closed her mouth and sank back into the seat she'd vacated not long before. She at least owed Charity a moment to explain herself.

"Listen to me, yeah?" Charity began, letting Vanessa get away with the eye roll she slipped in like a petulant child. Charity could only wonder if this was what it felt like dealing with her on a normal day. If so, she had so many apologies to make... not that she'd be making any anytime soon.

This time she grabbed a hold of Vanessa's hand and held it tightly in her lap, not giving the smaller woman the chance to reject her a second time. "I don't claim to know what's going on in that head of yours," she sighed, glancing down at their hands as she loosened her grip just enough to save them both from potentially losing any fingers. "but I know it must be hard, right? And I know you've been thinking about... dying," that word would never sit well on Charity's tongue. "more than you should have, but Ness," she continued, looking up from their hands and directly into Vanessa's eyes. "I haven't. I can't. The idea of losing you is..." Words weren't really needed to express the way that thought made Charity feel. Her guts twisted inside her abdomen, the colour draining from her face to leave a dulled greenish-white where a usual healthy pink glow should be. Not to mention the tears. Thousands of them, piling on top of each other in an effort to escape Charity's stubborn eyes and have a race down her cheeks to see who could drip onto her jumper the fastest.

"What?" Vanessa managed. Tears of her own brimming.

"The most gutwrenching thing imaginable," Charity replied in a pained whisper.

That hushed Vanessa. If she needed reassurance that Charity cared, there it was as plain as day. The truth was, she already knew Charity cared. She knew how loved she was and how much all of this would be hurting other people. This was why she'd wanted to keep it from them and suffer alone. She'd been frustrated with herself for laying it all on Charity in a moment of weakness and frustrated furthermore with Charity, for not being able to handle it. If she loved her so much, where was her magic wand? Why couldn't she fix this like she seemed to be able to fix anything else Vanessa put on her plate?

"Sorry," Vanessa eventually said, chewing her bottom lip as the shame of the way she'd been towards Charity began to set in.

"No," Charity shook her head, giving Vanessa's hand a reassuring squeeze. "I don't need apologies, I just need you to talk to me. Lay it all on me and let me be there for you,"

Vanessa's eyes dropped from Charity's face to the floor. Charity knew what was coming.

"Yeah, I know I've been rubbish. I know you expected me to be stronger in the beginning, but babe, this is me now and it's your fault," Charity managed to wedge in a little humour to lighten the mood as best she could.

"What? Made you soft?" Vanessa couldn't help the smallest of smiles tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Exactly!" Charity chuckled, moving her other hand to cradle Vanessa's. "But in all seriousness, I've been trying. Maybe a bit too hard. I know I've driven you up the wall with my terrible homemade spa treatments and crappy movie nights starting at 6pm in case you're sparkers long before a normal person's bedtime."

"A little bit," Vanessa admitted, feeling bad for seeming so ungrateful.

"I don't have to drive you up the wall, ya know," Charity huffed, "I just wanna know what you need, Ness. How I can lighten the load, even if it's by a fraction of a... whatever the smallest measurement is,"

Vanessa chuckled for the first time in what felt like weeks.

"Yeah, see? You still think I'm funny, eh." Charity had to point out, "I wanna be your rock, even if I am a bit porous these days."

"A bit?" Vanessa prodded cheekily.

"Yeah, alright!" Charity rolled her eyes amused, "A lot. I'm soft, we get it... just," she sighed, a plea in her tone and a knit brow. "don't push me away. If I have to promise I'll never make you another rancid green lump-filled soup again, I will!"

"I might take you up on that promise," Vanessa cracked a small smile.

Charity mirrored it, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. "And... about Johnny," she braved, half expecting Vanessa to kick off again, but she didn't. Instead, Charity was met with a patience she hadn't seen from her other half in a few weeks. Quiet and intent on hearing whatever it was Charity was about to say to her.

"I love him to bits, you know I do," Charity smiled softly, not moving her eyes away from Vanessa's face as her thumb brushed over the back of the smaller woman's hand in a comforting manner. "besides, even when he pushes my buttons he still manages to do it twenty times less than anyone I've given birth to, and that gives him a lot of brownie points!"

Vanessa chuckled.

"Of course I'll keep him," Charity said, "he's a brilliant tiny babysitter for Moses."

Vanessa sometimes wondered if she was mothering her future wife as well as the brood under their roof, "Charity." She grumbled. Now was not the time to be joking. "I need you to be serious, just for one second!"

"Alright!" Charity huffed. "I'm a thousand percent sure I want him. He's my Johnny-bobs, my boy... one half of my favourite little ankle-biter duo and... well, one day I hope, with you still very much being around, he'll settle for me giving him a cuddle when he's poorly and you're off out throwing pints over teenage boys."

Vanessa's eyes really wanted to roll, but instead, she found herself smiling. Charity may not have had the best of words but her words always hit home with Vanessa. Charity rambled on in a way only Charity could, raw, unfiltered and slightly ridiculous. It was a comfort to Vanessa, a way to know her woman was truly speaking her mind. An unedited word vomit couldn't be anything but honest and that's exactly what Vanessa needed.

"Really?" Vanessa frowned, needing that icing on the cake reassurance from Charity.

"Really," Charity nodded, giving it to her with no hesitation this time. "now come 'ere, will you?"

Vanessa didn't have much of a choice, Charity tugging her into a tight hug before she had a chance to respond, but there was no doubt she'd have moved into the other woman's arms of her own accord given a moment to do so.

"I'm sorry for being such a cow," Vanessa whimpered, bringing her cheek to rest against Charity's shoulder.

Charity hummed as her fingers moved up and down Vanessa's back. "No apologies, remember?"

"Yeah, I know, but--" Vanessa tried to slip in there.

Charity wasn't having any of it, putting a stop to it right away. "Nope. No but's. You're going through what's, quite possibly the worst thing you've ever been through... and let's be honest here, you've been through some stuff!"

Vanessa softened, rearing her head back to look at Charity.

Charity responded with the smallest of smiles, "I'd do anything for you, Ness. Even be your punching bag."

And as much as Vanessa wanted to argue that Charity shouldn't have to be that for her, she allowed herself to just take it in and appreciate the fact that her woman was willing to do such a thing for her. And anything else on top of that. "Okay, but we are gonna have to talk about those soups you're not getting any better at..."


End file.
